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2008 December » Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship

Business Pundit has compiled a list of 2008’s best business blogs. The winning blogs cover, among other fields, entrepreneurship, economics, franchising, IT and technology, marketing, advertising, and leadership.

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council released its annual Small Business Survival Index for 2008 (PDF). The index ranks states’ policy environment with respect to entrepreneurship. This year the top five states with the friendliest policy environment are: South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, Florida and Washington.

Meanwhile, a Forbes article discusses how states’ licensing regulations can stifle entrepreneurship and competition by erecting barriers to entry in various professions.

The 2008 State New Economy Index, a project of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, ranks Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey highest in terms of their ability to “effectively compete nationally and globally.” The index evaluates states based on indicators in five categories: knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and technological innovation capacity.

The 2008 Digital State Survey, which is conducted every two years by the Center for Digital Government, ranks Utah at the top of states delivering government services electronically. As a Utah resident, you can go online to, for instance, renew your drivers’ license, purchase fishing and hunting licenses, order birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates, submit an adoption or foster parent application, or renew your business registration. Rounding out the top five digital states are Michigan, Virginia, Arizona and California.

The survey also found that “[m]ore than a quarter of states created wikis for sharing collaborative information. Ninety percent of states use really simple syndication (RSS) feeds to broadcast information to interested users and 72 percent use podcasts within executive branch agencies. Half of the states use text messaging, 46 percent use mash-ups and 44 percent use blogs.”

At Small Business Trends, John Jantsch has an insightful post about how negative perceptions about money can affect a business negatively. Feeling uneasy about wanting to make money can “wreak havoc on the ability for a business to grow and prosper…. [Y]our pricing and the way you communicate how you expect to conduct professional relationships speaks volumes about value.”